PAUL Carden says Warrington Town are as ready as they can be for their tilt at a historic promotion.

Yellows take on King’s Lynn Town at Cantilever Park today knowing a win will seal a place in the National League North next season.

Promotion would be the undoubted high point of Carden’s two-and-a-half-year reign as manager – and of the club’s history as a whole – and he says the players are fully aware of the magnitude of what they can achieve.

While his side may have home advantage – Cantilever Park is set to host a partisan crowd in Town’s favour – Carden knows King’s Lynn will arrive determined to spoil the party.

“We haven’t flipped a coin for home advantage – we’ve earned it,” he said.

“This is a cup final, they’ll be preparing as best they can. I presume they’ll be doing an overnight stay.

“It’s a one-off game where anything can happen, whether it’s on our ground, theirs or somewhere neutral.

“Like always, we have to make sure we’re fully prepared.

“We need to be make sure we’re focused and ready, and the lads are.

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“Promotion would be unbelievable, to be honest.

“People talk about success and how you gauge it – when we came in two-and-a-half years ago it was about seeing if we could shake things up a little bit.

“The club had obviously had the promotion from the league below, Toby (Macormac, Yellows chairman) felt it wasn’t going in the direction he wanted it to and we were brought in.

Warrington Guardian:

Paul Carden during his first game in charge of Yellows – an FA Trophy defeat to Nantwich in October 2016. Picture by John Hopkins

“Over that period, there’s been change in all ways.

“We’ve got a squad now that is probably costing less than the squad I inherited but has a lot more quality.

“You only have to look at some of our performances over the season to see the quality that’s there.”

Yellows reached this stage with a memorable 2-1 victory at South Shields in the Evo-Stik Premier Division play-off final on Saturday.

After that, Carden made the journey down to Norfolk to watch the Linnets book a meeting with his side by beating Alvechurch 3-0 in the South Premier Division Central’s equivalent.

Warrington Guardian:

Paul Carden watched King's Lynn Town beat Alvechurch on Monday. Picture by Tim Smith

However, the Town boss does not necessarily feel his side have an advantage because of their scouting trip.

“We don’t know if they’ve had a look at us,” he said.

“They could have easily sent someone to watch the South Shields game – it wouldn’t have been out of the ordinary.

“All we know is we’ve seen them and we’re as prepared as we can be.

“We know it’s going to be a tough game but equally, we know they’re a tough opposition for anybody.

“Looking at their squad list, I knew King’s Lynn would be a good side.

“Obviously, we didn’t know loads about how they play but reading up on the teams we could have potentially played, King’s Lynn probably stood out.

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“They’re the biggest club – they’ve been further up as an old club but focusing on what they are now is the main thing for us.

“Having Michael Gash, Adam Marriot, Rory McAuley, Ryan Jarvis and players like that in the team, you know there’s quality there.

“Getting an understanding of how they play and set up was the reason for going down there and we’ve seen it.

“We’ve seen as much as we could in a one-off game.”

The Warrington Guardian will be providing live coverage of Saturday's game.

Sports reporter Matt Turner will be at Cantilever Park and his live blog - featuring build-up, match action and post-match reaction from the Yellows camp - will be live from around 2pm.